The  Organization  of  a  Whole  Industry 
By  Dr.  WM.  JAY  SCHIEFFELIN 

President  of  Schieffelin  &  Co. 

THE  JOINT  BOARD  IN  THE  CLOAK,  SUIT,  AND  SKIRT  INDUSTRY 

The  way  it  came  about  that  a  manufacturer  of  drugs  was  chosen  to 
be  chairman  of  the  Joint  Board  of  Sanitary  Control  in  the  Cloak,  Suit, 
and  Skirt  industry  in  the  City  of  New  York  was  as  follows : 

In  1910  there  was  a  terrible  strike  in  this  city.  It  was  terrible  ow¬ 
ing  to  the  poverty  and  the  misery  it  caused  among  many  workers,  and 
the  number  of  those  who  were  involved.  The  mills  had  to  shut  down. 
The  retail  stores  throughout  the  country  were  depending  upon  the 
stock  always  manufactured  here.  They  lost  a  large  proportion  of  their 
trade.  One  of  the  trade’s  statisticians  seriously  assured  me  that  the 
loss  would  aggregate  $50,000,000  on  that  one  strike.  I  could  hardly 
believe  it,  but  he  said  it  was  true.  Considering  the  loss  to  the  mills, 
and  to  the  manufacturers  and  contractors,  and  the  operators,  and  the 
losses  to  the  retail  merchants  and  the  public,  who  had  to  go  without 
their  cloaks,  skirts,  and  suits,  it  may  have  reached  that  figure. 

The  strike  dragged  on.  There  was  not  very  much  violence, 
although  at  times  there  was  some.  Before  the  strike  began,  not  one- 
half  the  trade  was  unionized.  When  the  strike  ended,  the  unions  had 
control  of  all  the  operatives.  Their  pickets  were  very  efficient,  and  they 
won  the  strike. 

But  it  nearly  killed  them  to  win  it,  and  the  manufacturers  were  up 
against  it,  and  saw  no  way  to  start  over  again.  It  is  a  seasonal  trade, 
and,  of  course,  when  the  season  was  over,  there  was  a  little  breathing 
space,  but  the  strikers  were  literally  starving,  and  the  manufacturers 
were  nearly  ruined.  Many  of  them  were  ruined,  and  they  were  no 
nearer  a  settlement  than  they  had  been  at  the  beginning. 

There  were  various  matters  at  issue,  but  toward  the  end  the  ques¬ 
tion  resolved  itself  into  that  of  the  open  or  closed  shop,  and  the  unions 
were  just  as  strong  for  the  closed  shop  as  the  manufacturers  were  for 


Read  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Efficiency  Society,  held  in  New  York  City,  March  18 

and  19,  1912. 

12 — I 


the  open  shop.  They  simply  came  to  a  deadlock  on  that.  Finally  Mr. 
Louis  Brandeis  was  brought  in,  and  he  conferred  with  Meyer  Lon¬ 
don,  the  counsel  for  the  strikers,  and  Julius  Henry  Cohen,  who  repre¬ 
sented  the  manufacturers.  They  devised  a  protocol  of  peace,  which 
was  satisfactory  to  everybody.  Marcus  Marks  said:  “It  will  last  six 
weeks.”  It  has  already  lasted  one  year  and  a  half. 


THE  COMPROMISE  BETWEEN  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

They  compromised  by  getting  down  to  fundamentals.  The  manu¬ 
facturers  insisted  upon  the  privilege  of  employing  non-union  men. 
The  unions  insisted  that  they  should  not  have  that  privilege.  Bran¬ 
deis  asked:  “Is  the  union  a  means  or  an  end?”  The  workmen  an¬ 
swered:  “A  means.”  “What  is  the  end?”  said  Brandeis.  “The  end, 
why,  union  wages  and  hours  and  sanitary  conditions  up  to  union  stan¬ 
dard,”  responded  the  union.  “Well,”  he  said,  “if  you  got  all  those 
would  you  say  you  had  won?”  “Why,  of  course,”  the  union  men  said. 
“Very  well,”  said  Brandeis. 

Then  he  went  to  the  manufacturers,  and  said :  “Is  the  union  wage 
all  right?”  “Oh,  yes,”  said  the  manufacturers.  “And  the  union 
hours?”  “Yes.”  “And  you  admit  that  many  of  the  shops  are  in 
unsanitary  condition,  being  in  cellars  and  tenements,  and  should  be 
made  sanitary?”  “Oh,  yes,  we  are  willing  to  concede  all  that.”  “Then 
nothing  stands  in  the  way  but  the  closed  shop.  Why  do  you  refuse 
to  allow  the  closed  shop?”  They  said:  “We  might  as  well  turn 
over  the  whole  management  of  our  business  to  those  men.” 

Brandeis  said:  “Well,  supposing  you  admitted  it  was  well  in  an 
industry  like  this  to  have  collective  bargaining.”  “Oh,  that  is  all  right, 
yes.”  “Supposing  you  are  willing  to  concede  union  wages  and  hours 
and  union  sanitary  conditions.”  “We  are  willing  to  concede  those.” 

“If  you  would  agree,  that  in  the  event  of  your  not  being  able  to 
get  satisfactory  labor  from  the  unions,  then  you  would  get  outside 
labor,  and  not  until  then ;  and  that  you  would  urge  your  new  hands  to 
join  the  union;  in  other  words,  that  you  would  give  a  preference  to 
union  labor,  but  still  have  the  privilege  of  employing  outside  labor  if 
you  had  to,  wouldn’t  that  suit  you?”  “Yes,”  said  the  manufacturers. 

One  objection  advanced  by  the  manufacturers  was  that  when  they 
wanted  to  take  large  contracts,  if  they  had  a  closed  shop  they  might 
have  difficulty  in  getting  labor,  as  the  contracts  have  to  be  finished 
within  a  given  time. 

The  union  said :  “We  will  agree  to  your  preferential  shop,  because 


12 — 2 


we  will  call  it  a  preferential  union  shop;  and  its  success  will  depend 
upon  the  extent  to  which  the  manufacturer  and  the  unions  cooperate.'’ 

THE  BOARD  OF  SANITARY  CONTROL 

Then  they  drew  up  a  treaty  of  peace,  and  this  was  in  the  form  of  a 
protocol.  I  will  read  one  clause: 

“The  parties  hereby  establish  a  Joint  Board  of  Sanitary  Control,  to 
consist  of  seven  members,  composed  of  two  nominees  of  the  manu¬ 
facturers,  two  nominees  of  the  unions  and  three  who  are  to  represent 
the  public;  the  latter  to  be  named  by  Meyer  London,  Esq.,  and  Julius 
Henry  Cohen,  Esq.;  and  in  the  event  of  their  inability  to  agree,  by 
Louis  Marshall,  Esq.  Said  Board  is  empowered  to  establish  standards 
of  sanitary  conditions  to  which  the  manufacturers  and  the  union  shall 
be  committed,  and  the  manufacturers  and  the  unions  obligate  them¬ 
selves  to  maintain  such  standards  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  and  to  the 
full  extent  of  their  power.” 

Under  that  protocol  they  appointed  two  from  the  unions,  two  from 
the  manufacturers,  and  three  to  represent  the  public.  The  three  who 
were  to  represent  the  public  were  Miss  Lillian  Wald,  head  of  the 
Nurses’  Settlement,  on  Henry  Street,  Dr.  Henry  Moskowitz,  and  my¬ 
self. 

That  board  elected  me  chairman,  and  it  met  monthly,  and  its  ses¬ 
sions  lasted  frequently  from  eight  o’clock  in  the  evening  until  mid¬ 
night.  We  got  the  best  experts  obtainable.  Neither  side  hesitated 
to  pay  $4,000  or  $5,000  annually  for  the  expenses  of  the  Board.  It  is 
a  huge  industry,  you  know.  There  are  over  60,000  employees.  The 
first  inspections  were  made  with  great  thoroughness  and  detail,  and  the 
inspecting  cards  presented  in  their  report  cover  every  conceivable  va¬ 
riety  of  data.  The  inspection  showed  that  very  few  of  the  shops  were 
either  safe  or  sanitary;  before  that  fire  in  the  Triangle,  we  reported 
over  eighty  shops  to  the  mayor  and  other  officials  of  the  city  as  fire 
hazards.  Some  of  these  were  against  shops  that  had  fire  escapes  that 
led  into  blind  alleys  or  cul  de  sacs. 

Both  sides  cooperated  freely.  We  had  a  small  number  of  what  you 
might  call  health  strikes.  There  were  certain  contractors  who  did  not 
belong  to  the  Manufacturers’  Association,  and  who  were  obstinate 
about  changing  conditions,  and  so  the  unions  were  notified  that  such 
and  such  shops  were  intolerable  and  could  not  be  made  sanitary ;  and 
that  the  workers  were  working  there  at  their  peril.  Presently  the  men 
did  not  go  to  work,  and  these  contractors  had  to  change  their  quar- 

12—3 


ters.  In  several  cases  they  wrote  to  the  Board  that  they  had  been 
meaning  to  change  all  the  time,  but  now  they  were  glad  to.  And  to¬ 
day  we  have  the  plan  of  giving  certificates  to  such  shops  as  comply 
in  every  respect  with  the  sanitary  standards  set  up  by  the  Board,  and 
the  standards  are  fairly  rigid. 

THE  SANITARY  STANDARDS 

There  are  twenty-eight  such  sanitary  standards,  and  I  will  read 
them  : 

1.  No  shop  to  be  allowed  in  a  cellar. 

2.  No  shop  to  be  allowed  in  rear  houses  or  attic  floors,  without 
special  permission  of  the  Board. 

3.  Shops  located  in  buildings  two  stories  or  more  in  height  must 
have  one  or  more  fire-escapes. 

4.  All  fire-escapes  to  be  provided  with  ladders  to  the  roof  of  same 
house  or  to  an  adjoining  house;  also  with  full  length  drop  ladders, 
properly  located  and  adjusted. 

5.  In  all  shops  which  are  not  provided  with  automatic  sprinklers 
there  should  be  kept  a  sufficient  number  of  chemical  extinguishers,  or 
a  sufficient  number  of  fire  buckets,  properly  located  and  filled. 

6.  Special  caretakers  to  be  appointed  in  each  shop  for  the  care 
of  the  fire  buckets,  and  for  their  use  in  case  of  fire. 

7.  All  openings  and  exits  to  fire-escapes  to  be  left  unobstructed 
by  tables,  machines,  boxes,  partitions,  and  iron  bars. 

8.  No  doors  to  be  locked  during  working  hours. 

9.  No  smoking  to  be  permitted  in  workshop. 

10.  Conspicuous  signs  to  be  placed  throughout  the  shop,  marking 
location  and  direction  of  exits  and  fire-escapes. 

11.  Fireproof  receptacles,  lined  with  tin,  and  having  a  tin  cover, 
to  be  provided,  in  sufficient  numbers,  for  rubbish. 

12.  Halls  and  stairways  leading  from  shops  to  be  adequately 
lighted  by  natural  or  artificial  light. 

13.  Stairs  to  be  provided  with  secure  handrails  and  safe  treads. 

14.  Sufficient  window  space  to  be  provided  for  each  shop,  so  that 
all  parts  of  the  shop  be  well  lighted  during  the  hours  from  9  a.  m.  to 
4  P.  M. 

15.  Where  gas  illumination  is  used,  arc  lights  or  incandescent 
mantles  should  be  used. 

16.  All  light  to  be  well  shaded,  to  be  placed  above  operatives,  and 
not  too  near  them. 

12—4 


1 7.  At  least  400  cubic  feet  of  space,  exclusive  of  bulky  furniture 
and  materials,  should  be  provided  for  every  person  within  the  shop. 

18.  The  shop  should  be  thoroughly  aired  before  and  after  work 
hours,  and  during  lunch  hour,  by  opening  windows  and  doors. 

19.  No  coal  should  be  used  for  direct  heating  of  irons,  and  when¬ 
ever  stoves  are  used  for  heating  shops,  they  should  be  surrounded  by 
metal  sheet  at  least  five  feet  high. 

20.  Walls  and  ceilings  of  shops  and  water-closet  apartments 
should  be  cleaned  as  often  as  necessary,  and  kept  clean. 

21.  Floors  of  shops,  and  of  water-closet  apartments,  to  be  scrubbed 
weekly,  swept  daily,  and  kept  free  of  refuse. 

22.  A  separate  water-closet  apartment  shall  be  provided  for  each 
sex,  with  solid  partitions  to  extend  from  floor  to  ceiling,  and  with 
separate  vestibules  and  doors. 

23.  Water-closets  to  be  adequately  flushed  and  kept  clean. 

24.  A  special  caretaker  to  be  designated  by  the  employer  to  the 
care  of  the  shop  and  water-closet  apartments. 

25.  A  sufficient  number  of  water-supplied  washbasins  to  be  pro¬ 
vided,  in  convenient  and  light  locations  within  the  shop. 

26.  Suitable  hangers  should  be  provided  for  the  street  clothes  of 
the  employees,  and  separate  dressing  rooms  to  be  provided  wherever 
women  are  working. 

27.  Water-closet  apartments,  dressing  rooms,  washrooms,  and 
lunch  rooms  to  be  properly  lighted,  illuminated,  ventilated,  cleaned, 
and  kept  clean. 

28.  All  seats  to  have  backs. 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  NEW  CONTROL 

In  the  beginning  the  representatives  of  the  workingmen  said  that 
the  rule  in  regard  to  smoking  was  absolutely  unenforcible.  After  six 
months  the  sentiment  of  the  workers  has  changed  toward  that  rule. 
I  called  up  the  central  office  just  before  coming  here,  and  they  told 
me  they  had  issued  certificates  to  344  shops,  embracing  practically  one- 
half  of  the  employees,  because  they  are  the  larger  shops. 

Now,  that  is  progress.  There  are  probably  1,200  shops  much 
smaller  than  these  still  to  be  brought  up  to  the  standard.  But  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases  they  simply  need  certain  minor  changes  in  order 
to  make  them  complete.  In  any  shops  where  there  was  great  peril, 
the  changes  were  made  even  to  the  extent  of  making  tunnels  through 
12—5 


walls  to  fire-escapes,  so  that  people  who  had  reached  the  bottom  of  the 
fire-escapes  could  get  out. 

I  have  said  to  business  organizations  and  religious  meetings  that 
one  of  the  most  Christian  boards  I  ever  served  upon  has  been  this  Joint 
Board  of  Sanitary  Control,  because  the  members  have  shown  a  spirit 
of  brotherhood  that  has  been  perfectly  admirable.  All  the  members 
of  the  board  excepting  myself  are  Jews. 

I  want  to  pay  a  tribute  to  Dr.  Price,  the  chairman  of  the  executive 
committee  and  expert  sanitarian,  who  has  spent  himself,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  in  perfecting  these  standards,  and  in  personal  investiga¬ 
tion  of  the  conditions.  He  had  had  experience  as  chief  medical  in¬ 
spector  in  the  Tenement  House  Department. 

On  a  number  of  occasions  this  voluntary  joint  action  on  the  part 
of  the  employers  and  employes,  has  rectified  many  unsanitary  condi¬ 
tions  which  constant  complaint  to  the  state  and  city  departments  had 
been  unable  to  help.  When  you  look  at  the  number  of  factories  in  this 
city  and  in  the  State,  and  the  small  number  of  inspectors,  and  then  con¬ 
sider  the  small  number  of  inspections  which  that  number  of  inspectors 
can  make,  you  will  be  surprised.  Our  inspectors  made  twenty  or 
thirty  inspections  where  the  state  inspectors  made  four,  five  or  six. 
When  you  consider  those  conditions,  you  will  well  understand  that 
this  kind  of  an  auxiliary  to  the  state  forces,  is  most  useful  in  bringing 
about  better  conditions. 

The  thing  that  I  wish  to  emphasize  here  is  that  in  this  city  is  being 
given  an  example  of  solving  that  apparently  unsolvable  problem  of 
the  employer  who  attempts  to  run  his  own  business  and  the  employes 
who  demand  collective  bargaining,  and  to  show  it  is  to  their  mutual 
interest  to  regard  the  job  of  producing  as  one  job  in  which  they  are 
jointly  engaged. 

Now,  if  we  can  go  one  step  further  and  regard  the  job  of  distribu¬ 
tion  as  one  job,  and  have  everybody  in  friendly  cooperation,  we  can 
call  upon  the  public  to  back  this  thing  up.  The  way  to  do  that  is,  as 
soon  as  we  have  a  majority  of  the  shops,  or  workingmen  in  those  shops 
under  the  certificate,  to  educate  the  public  to  patronize  certificated 
shops.  In  that  way  the  public  can  stamp  its  approval  on  this  plan  of 
enlightened  cooperation.  And  surely  it  is  a  fair  thing  to  bring  about 
wholesome  conditions  in  a  way  that  reflects  credit  upon  both  sides. 

12 — 6 


ANOTHER  EXAMPLE  OF  JOINT  CONTROL 


I  want  further  to  call  attention  to  a  similar  movement  started  about 
two  months  ago.  In  Michigan  there  is  an  organized  alliance  between 
the  employers  and  the  workers  of  the  Grand  Rapids  Furniture  Com¬ 
pany,  which  is  very  interesting,  and  it  consists  of  two  coordinated  asso¬ 
ciations,  each  independent. 

It  was  brought  about  by  a  strike  in  the  industry,  and  it  has 
been  followed  by  better  feeling  between  the  two  parties  than 
might  have  been  expected.  The  arbitrators  have  perfected  plans  for  a 
unique  and  helpful  cooperative  organization,  consisting  of  two  coordi¬ 
nate  associations,  each  largely  independent  of  the  other.  The  manu¬ 
facturers  have  banded  together  as  the  Furniture  Craftsmasters  of  Grand 
Rapids,  and  the  employes  as  the  United  Furniture  Craftsmen  of 
Grand  Rapids.  The  Craftsmen  will  have  branches  of  not  less  than 
twenty-five  members  in  each  factory,  and  every  individual  member 
will  pay  fifty  cents  monthly  dues,  to  be  applied  to  sick,  accident,  and 
death  benefits.  The  Craftsmen  will  be  under  the  exclusive  and  entire 
management  of  the  employes,  and  will  handle  their  own  funds.  The 
Craftsmasters  will  consist  of  all  manufacturers  whose  employes  are 
members  of  the  Craftsmen.  Each  employer  obligates  himself  to  pay 
monthly  into  the  treasury  of  his  organization  a  sum  equal  to  the  total 
paid  by  his  employes.  The  Craftsmasters’  organization  is  inde¬ 
pendent  of  the  Craftsmen,  but  agrees  that  its  funds  shall  be  perpetu¬ 
ally  applied  to  the  benefit  of  employes  who  are  members  of  the  Crafts¬ 
men,  in  such  a  way  as  may  be  deemed  advisable,  especially  in  supple¬ 
menting  benefits,  in  creating  old-age  pensions,  in  temporary  loans  to 
members,  and  in  other  avenues  of  service. 

In  addition  to  the  financial  benefits  to  the  employes,  there  must 
come  the  spirit  of  cooperation  between  manufacturer  and  laborer, 
which  cannot  do  other  than  develop  a  sympathy  and  cordiality  that 
will  go  far  toward  avoiding  all  labor  troubles,  and  which  will  increase 
operating  efficiency.  If  the  six  thousand  strikers  of  last  spring  should 
all  become  members  of  this  association,  there  would  be  available 
$72,000  a  year,  a  sum  far  greater  than  that  at  the  disposal  of  any 
local  union  organization.  Such  a  sum  would  offer  advantages  to  em¬ 
ployes  far  in  excess  of  those  of  any  existing  union,  and  would  be  a 
potent  force  for  betterment  in  the  city,  bringing  to  many  a  family 
the  help  urgently  needed  in  times  of  suffering. 

The  project  is  most  comprehensive,  and  is  undertaken  enthusias¬ 
tically  alike  by  manufacturers  and  employes.  All  of  the  employes 

12—7 


consulted  have  expressed  their  unqualified  approval.  There  seems  to 
be  no  serious  difficulty  in  the  way  of  perfecting  this  effective  fraternal 
organization  of  capital  and  labor.  The  consummation  of  such  a  two¬ 
fold  labor  organization  will  be  a  credit  to  Grand  Rapids,  and  will  be 
watched  everywhere  as  one  of  the  hopeful  developments  out  of  our 
industrial  unrest. 

That,  of  course,  is  not  nearly  as  practical  as  this  Joint  Board  of 
Sanitary  Control. 

I  omitted  to  mention  that  this  protocol  had  another  clause  which 
established  a  Court  of  Arbitration,  which  settles  every  kind  of  differ¬ 
ence  relating  to  wages  and  hours.  That  appears  to  be  working  in  a 
perfectly  satisfactory  way,  too. 


Discussion 

Mr.  H.  F.  J.  Porter:  I  am  glad  that  Dr.  Schieffelin  has  referred 
to  the  Court  of  Arbitration,  for  I  think  that  is  a  very  important  ele¬ 
ment  in  this  whole  scheme  of  joint  control  of  an  industry.  There  has 
recently  appeared  the  report  of  the  Congressional  Commission  ap¬ 
pointed  to  investigate  the  subject  of  Scientific  Management  in  indus¬ 
trial  plants,  which  states  that  in  order  to  accomplish  satisfactory  results 
the  “consent  of  the  employe”  must  be  obtained.  Possibly  the  success 
which  is  coming  from  the  scheme  which  Dr.  Schieffelin  has  out¬ 
lined  is  due  to  the  fact  that  there  is  cooperation  between  employer  and 
employe,  which  means  that  the  consent  of  the  employe  is  being  ob¬ 
tained. 

But  one  of  the  most  important  facts  which  is  being  brought  out  by 
the  operation  of  this  Joint  Board  of  Control  of  an  industry  is  that 
there  are  certain  features  which  involve  inefficiency  which  cannot  be 
attacked  in  any  other  way  than  by  getting  the  whole  industry  so  co¬ 
related  that  the  individual  plants  composing  it  can  be  treated  with 
collectively. 

Dr.  Schieffelin  has  referred  to  the  fact  that  this  is  a  seasonal  in¬ 
dustry;  by  that  he  means  that  there  are  every  year  two  busy  seasons 
and  two  slack  seasons.  There  are,  as  he  says,  some  60,000  employes, 
which  means  that  these  people,  with  those  who  are  dependent  upon 
them  for  support,  constitute  a  community  aggregating  close  to  200,000 
people,  which  is  as  many  as  there  are  in  the  city  of  Providence  or 
Indianapolis.  Now  twice  a  year  when  the  slack  season  arrives  these 
200,000  people  are  necessarily  affected,  and  a  very  large  percentage  of 
them  are  thrown  absolutely  out  of  work,  and  for  two  and  a  half 

12—8 


months  must  seek  support  through  some  other  channel.  Many  of  these 
people  are  totally  unequipped  to  support  themselves  in  any  other  man¬ 
ner  than  by  the  trade  which  they  have  learned,  and  consequently  the 
city  has  to  take  care  of  them  through  its  organized  charities,  or  else 
they  are  left  to  their  own  devices  to  work  out  an  existence  as  best  they 
can.  Our  students  of  Social  Research  advise  me  that  a  great  deal  of 
the  crime  which  takes  place  in  our  cities  is  due  to  this  seasonal  fluctua¬ 
tion  in  these  plants,  and  I  am  sure  that  when  200,000  people  are  di¬ 
verted  from  their  normal  channels  of  work  and  are  thrown  upon  the 
streets  of  New  York  for  two  and  a  half  months  temporary  existence, 
conditions  are  in  a  very  abnormal  state.  It  is  perfectly  apparent  to 
the  student  of  industrial  conditions  that  seasonal  fluctuations  which 
affect  a  whole  industry  cannot  be  attacked  successfully  in  a  single 
factory,  and  that  the  only  way  that  a  cure  can  be  effected  will  be 
through  the  efforts  of  a  Joint  Board  administering  the  interests  of  the 
whole  industry. 

I  think  I  see  in  this  plan  a  very  important  step  towards  the  solu¬ 
tion  of  problems  to  which  it  would  be  well  for  this  Society  to  devote 
considerable  attention. 


12—9 


